It's official: Jerry Remy's Sports Bar & Grill coming to Fall River

The waterfront announcement Thursday that Jerry Remy’s Sports Bar & Grill has “a preliminary signed agreement” to make Fall River its next hot spot may have been an extra-base hit for the city and the development team headed by Anthony Cordeiro.

The waterfront announcement Thursday that Jerry Remy’s Sports Bar & Grill has “a preliminary signed agreement” to make Fall River its next hot spot may have been an extra-base hit for the city and the development team headed by Anthony Cordeiro.

But based on raised expectations the past couple of months, the ball fell short of a home run for the public-private-political partnership being touted next to Bicentennial Park.

Remy, a city native raised in Somerset, was not in town for the announcement. He was at Fenway Park, calling the Red Sox game, just as he has for more than two decades since his playing career ended.

Instead, his managing partner, John Mascia, joined Mayor Will Flanagan, Fall River Economic Development Executive Vice President Kenneth Fiola Jr. at Thursday's event. Cordeiro and one of his two partners, Larry Couto, were also there to push the $3 million project ahead.

“We do have a preliminary signed deal with Tony and his partners to bring Remy’s to the waterfront,” Mascia said. Construction should start late this fall if all the conditions of the deal are met, he said.

The sports-themed restaurant would bring about 70 jobs, Flanagan said, and help open expansion opportunities, including a longer boardwalk past the park.

Fiola, at a brief press conference, called it “a significant real estate announcement.”

Its roots began a year ago when Remy’s examined a setup at the closed Regatta next to Heritage State Park, Fiola said.

Mascia said last month the chain plans to open its Fall River location by May or June of next year. The 5,000-square-foot indoor restaurant will seat 250 diners, and two outdoor spaces totaling 4,000 square feet could seat about 400 more at tables facing the Taunton River. The site had been the Quaker Fabric headquarters.

Remy's in Fall River would be the chain's fourth location and its first outside Boston. The other locations are at Logan Airport, on Boylston Street near Fenway Park, and in the Seaport District in South Boston.

Plans are to build “10 to 20 more in three or four years,” Mascia said.

When asked if obstacles they need to overcome could halt the project, Mascia said, “Everybody wants to meet the conditions. It’s a matter of the timeline. He said the four to six months of construction was key.

Mascia and Cordeiro listed conditions to cement the deal: improvement of what is now one-way access on Davol Street past their site, that requires President Avenue area traffic to head north and return south. They also need the City Council to ease waterfront zoning requirements via a proposal pushed by Flanagan.

Page 2 of 2 -
“We’d like to see it rezoned so other people can come in and develop the area,” Mascia said.

Showing his big-league orientation, Mascia said they’d also prefer that the recently improved state boat launch be expanded to handle transient boat traffic pulling in.

After the past month or so saying an announcement could be imminent, and several teasing tweets from the restaurant group, Cordeiro said bringing “the Remy’s brand” to his site carried a significant cost and required repayment commitments.

He and his partners as Commonwealth Landing LLC said they’d invest more than $3 million as part of a $16 million overall project cost for the five-story building. The top stories will house rental apartments, with the lower levels designated for commercial and office space.

Cordeiro said recent guarantees by the Remy group “made it easy for us to come up with that money.”

He also lauded Flanagan’s commitment to this project after he served on the mayor’s economic development transition team early in Flanagan's administration.

In turn, Flanagan praised “three successful businessmen” – Cordeiro, Couto and third partner Alan Macomber – who “are willing to make an investment in the city.”

Remy’s coming to the former major leaguer’s native city “shows their faith and commitment in our community,” he said.

Flanagan said their eatery/pubs bring a “family atmosphere” with state-of-the-art audio-visual systems.

He and Fiola alluded to political backing needed from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the state economic development office, U.S. Rep. James McGovern and area legislators to make infrastructure to expand opportunities.

“We have to vet a conceptual design with the DOT,” Fiola said when asked about their progress.

The Landing partnership purchased the property with 5½ waterfront acres for $1.5 million at bankruptcy auction just over a year ago.